In this section

SUTTON

Sudtone, Suttone (xi cent.).

Sutton is a parish covering an area of 2,233 acres,
of which 1,335 are arable land, 593 permanent grass
and 318 woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil is principally clay, the subsoil strong clay, and the principal
crops wheat, barley, beans, and peas. The parish is
well wooded in the north and west.

There is no railway station at Sutton, Potton,
1¼ miles off, on the Bletchley and Cambridge branch,
and Biggleswade, 2½ miles to the north-east, on the
main line of the London and North Western Railway
being the nearest stations.

The high road from Biggleswade to Potton passes
from south-west to north-east of the parish, forming,
as it passes north, the western boundary of the Sutton
Park Estate. Another road coming up from Eyworth
in the south-east joins the Sandy and Potton main
road as it issues from the north-western corner of the
parish.

This road, shortly after entering the parish, rises
from an elevation of 120 ft. to 184 ft. above the
ordnance datum, but it falls again before entering the
village of Sutton, which is situated about the centre of
the parish.

The church stands at the south-east end of the
park, with the vicarage immediately to the east of it,
the fall of the ground being eastward. At the foot of
the slope the road crosses by a ford one of the numerous
small streams that feed the River Ivel. The footpath
is carried over the stream by a narrow stone packhorse bridge, probably of fourteenth-century date,
with two pointed arches. Beyond the stream is the
greater part of the small village; its houses mostly
built of timber and plaster with thatched roofs.

Sutton Park, the seat of Col. Sir John Montague
Burgoyne, which is bounded on the west by the
Potton Road, contains some good trees, firs and
others; the present house is modern, but to the
north of it is a large earthen mound, said to be the
site of the original house, and undoubtedly of early
date. It has been encircled by a ditch, and local
tradition has it that the village was formerly near to it.

The vicarage house is of considerable interest, the
oldest part belonging to an H-shaped building of
timber and plaster, probably of sixteenth-century date,
with a later wing on the north. It faces eastward.

The following place-names have been found in
Sutton:—Longholm, in the fourteenth century; (fn. 2)
Bendowes, and le Sande Ende, in the sixteenth. (fn. 3)

Manors

The principal holder in Sutton at the
time of the Domesday Survey was the
Countess Judith, who held altogether six
hides which subsequently became SUTTON MANOR. (fn. 4)
Her lands became part of the honour of Huntingdon,
and the overlordship of Sutton followed the same
descent as that of Potton manor (q.v.). (fn. 5) The last
reference that has been found to the overlordship is in
1428, when it was held of this honour. (fn. 6)

In 1086 the Countess Judith had eight tenants
under her whose holdings ranged from half a hide to
two hides. (fn. 7) It is impossible to say to which of these
holdings Sutton manor owes its origin, but it is probable that quite early, as often happened, the various
portions became gradually concentrated in the hands
of one person. Dugdale states that Robert Foliot
(c. 1168) married the daughter and heiress of Richard
de Reincourt, lord of Sutton in Bedfordshire, and that
to him succeeded Richard Foliot his son, whose only
child Margery married Wyschard Ledet about 1198, (fn. 8)
and he held the manor in 1216. (fn. 9)

Sutton: The Packhorse Bridge

In 1222 his daughter Christina Ledet married
Henry de Braybrooke, (fn. 10) who had already inherited
from his father free tenements in Sutton. (fn. 11) Christina,
who afterwards married Gerard de Furnival, (fn. 12) survived her second husband many years, and at her
death, which occurred at some time previous to 1271,
she left two granddaughters as co-heirs. (fn. 13) Of these
Alice, who was married to William le Latimer,
received Sutton manor as part of her share in
Christina's estate. (fn. 14) In 1315 Alice le Latimer vested
her right to the manor in John de Kinnardseye, who
granted it back to her for life with remainder to
Nicholas le Latimer and heirs of his body, and failing
such to Thomas earl of Lancaster and his heirs. (fn. 15)
Alice le Latimer died before 1317, in which year
Nicholas acquired possession of Sutton manor, (fn. 16) which
by 1327 had passed to William le Latimer, son of
Alice. (fn. 17) His son William held Sutton at his death
in 1336, (fn. 18) when the manor passed to his son, also
William, who was under age at the time of his father's
death. (fn. 19) He died in 1381 without male heirs, leaving
a daughter Elizabeth, wife of John Neville of Raby, (fn. 20)
who held this manor in right of his wife at the time
of his death in 1389. (fn. 21) In 1392 Henry earl of
Derby, son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster,
successfully claimed Sutton manor in accordance with
the settlement made by Alice le Latimer in 1315; (fn. 22)
and during the fifteenth century it is to be found as
part of the duchy of Lancaster, and was the subject
of various temporary grants. (fn. 23)

In 1402 Henry Longdon received the site of the
manor of Sutton for life, (fn. 24) and in 1427 Elizabeth,
daughter of William Beauchamp of Powyk and wife of
Thomas Swinford, was granted
this manor for her life. (fn. 25)

Finally, in 1544, Thomas
Burgoyne received a perpetual
grant of this manor for himself and his heirs, (fn. 26) and it has
since remained with this family,
whose representative, Sir John
Burgoyne, is at present lord of
Sutton manor. (fn. 27)

Burgoyne. Gules a cheveron or between three talbots argent and a battled chief argent with three martlets azure therein.

A second manor in Sutton,
that of ENDERBIES, appears
in the fifteenth century, and
appears to have originated in a grant by the crown to
the Enderbys after Sutton manor fell to the duchy of
Lancaster. The first mention of it occurs in 1488,
when Sir Richard Enderby
died seised of a messuage and
24 acres of land in Sutton,
held of the king as of the
manor of Sutton, parcel of the
duchy of Lancaster. (fn. 28) It appears to have continued to
belong to the Enderbys (fn. 29) until
in 1529 an exchange was
effected between Francis Pygott (who had married Eleanor
Enderby) and John Burgoyne,
the former giving Enderbies
manor (here first so called) in
exchange for lands in Edworth, Stratton, Holme, and
Astwick. (fn. 30) John Burgoyne left the manor to his son
Thomas in 1541, (fn. 31) who acquired Sutton manor (q.v.)
in 1544, and these two manors have since followed
the same descent. The smaller manor did not immediately lose its separate identity, and as late as 1731
it is still distinguished by name from the more important manor. (fn. 32)

Enderby. Argent three bars dancetty sable with a pale ermine in the chief.

At the time of the Survey one of these 1½ virgates
of land in Sutton belonging to the reeves and almsmen
of the king was held by Alwin, in 1086, and had been
assigned by Ralph Taillebois, as sheriff, to the king's
service. (fn. 33) This holding probably reappears in the
thirteenth century as the land which Henry de Costentin held of the king in chief for half a knight's
fee. (fn. 34) On his death in 1255 Henry left a son Geoffrey, (fn. 35) who transferred this fee to Alexander de
Somersham. (fn. 36) John de Somersham, who succeeded
his father in 1291, (fn. 37) appears to have split up the fee
by enfeoffing several persons with small portions of
land; William Godwin, John Warison, Alice le
Latimer, Nicholas and Geoffrey Power, were each so
enfeoffed. (fn. 38) Thus by 1344 Alexander de Somersham,
who had succeeded John, died seised of 14 acres of
land only, which are described as poor and sandy, and
were held of the king in chief by petty serjeanty. (fn. 39)
He left a son John, and a later inquisition, bearing the
date 1364, held on Alexander de Somersham, probably
a grandson, for the same 14 acres, states that he left
as heirs his daughters Margaret and Agnes, and with
the consequent subdivision of the land further trace
of this fee disappears. (fn. 40)

A third holder in Sutton at the time of the Survey
was Eudo son of Hubert, of whom Alwin held 3 virgates. (fn. 41) The lands of Eudo were granted to the
Beauchamps of Eaton in 1120, (fn. 42) and next reappear
in the free tenements which Henry de Braybrooke
claimed in Sutton in 1212, and which had come to
his father by gift of Philippa Beauchamp. (fn. 43) This
holding, of which no further separate mention has
been found, thus became absorbed in Sutton manor.

The right of holding a view of frankpledge twice
yearly, (fn. 44) and also of free warren (fn. 45) belonged to Sutton
manor.

Camden, in his Magna Britannia, mentions a rhyming grant by which John of Gaunt gave Sutton to Roger Burgoyne. (fn. 46)

Lysons also makes mention of the tradition, (fn. 47) which
is without foundation (cf. history of Sutton manor).
The doggerel grant, which has been applied to many
other places, ran as follows:—
I, John of Gaunt
Do give and do graunt
Unto Roger Boyne
And the heir of his loine
Both Sutton and Potton
Until the world's rotten.

Church

The church of ALL SAINTS consists
of a chancel 26 ft. by 16 ft. 6 in., nave
45 ft. by 18 ft. 6 in., with north aisle
17 ft. wide, and south aisle 9 ft. wide, south porch
and western tower 11 ft. 9 in. by 11 ft. 3 in.

The angles of an aisleless nave, of twelfth or thirteenth-century date, remain at the north-east, southeast, and south-west of the present nave, but the chancel
belonging to this church has been entirely rebuilt. In
the thirteenth century the south aisle was added, and
it is probable that somewhere about the same time
the chancel was rebuilt. It was, however, entirely
remodelled in the early years of the fourteenth century,
a vestry being built at the north-east, and the chancel
arch and north aisle with its arcade are approximately
of the same date. The western tower is an addition
of the fifteenth century, and the clearstory was added
shortly after the building of the tower: the south
porch, built in place of the earlier one which had a
steeper gable, is also of the fifteenth century. There
was once also a steep-gabled porch over the north
doorway, as shown by the marks still seen on the wall
above the door. The window in the south aisle
between the porch and the east wall is evidently of
much later date, probably the end of the sixteenth
century. The east window of the chancel is of early
fourteenth-century date, of three lights, with an unusual
form of tracery, the two outer lights appearing to
have had pointed heads without cusps, but half the
head of each light seems to have been cut away
(if it ever existed), the pointed form of the head
being kept only by the glass. The middle light of
the window is trefoiled with small flowing openings
above it in the apex of the arch. In the south wall
are contemporary segmental-headed windows, each
of two trefoiled lights with cusped tracery in the
head. Between these windows is a small fifteenthcentury doorway and part of the head of a blocked
pointed doorway, which may be of thirteenth-century
date.

Sutton Church, from South-east

At the north-west of the chancel is a two-light
window with fifteenth-century tracery. The vestry
at the north-east is completely destroyed, but the door
which led into it still remains, with a wide arched
recess to the east of it in the north wall of the
chancel.

In the south wall of the chancel are three sedilia
with crocketed ogee heads and finials, and to the east
of them a double piscina, all of early fourteenthcentury date and of very good detail.

The chancel arch of the same date is of two orders,
wave-moulded, with a groove at the eastern angle of
the inner order for the boarding which filled the arch
behind the rood.

The nave has arcades of four bays, that on the
north being c. 1330, with piers of four engaged shafts
having moulded capitals and bases and arches of twomoulded orders.

The north chapel is unusually large, the eastern
part of it being full of monuments of the Burgoyne
family. The east window is of three cinquefoiled
lights, the tracery being a fifteenth-century insertion
in fourteenth-century jambs and heads. In the north
wall are two sixteenth-century windows, each of three
uncusped lights under a four-centred head, the eastern
of the two being blocked by a Burgoyne monument.
There is a plain north doorway with traces of a
porch over it, and the west window is of three lights of
fifteenth-century date. The walls have been raised
and a parapet added in the fifteenth century, a lowpitched roof being put on at the same time, and
the original fourteenth-century buttresses have been
strengthened with additional masonry.

The south arcade has piers of four engaged shafts
with keeled rolls in the angles, with moulded capitals
and pointed arches of two hollow-chamfered orders.
The south aisle has a modern three-light east window,
and on the south a plain square-headed two-light
window, probably of no great age. To the west of
it is the south doorway, which has a deeply-moulded
thirteenth-century arch of two orders and round
moulded capitals, which formerly rested on detached
shafts now cut away.

The porch is a fifteenth-century addition with
small two-light windows on east and west and stone
benches along the walls; the outer arch is two-centered under a square head with tracery in the spandrels.
It replaces an older porch, the traces of whose steeppitched roof remain over the inner doorway. West
of the porch is a three-light window contemporary
with it, and in the west wall of the aisle is a modern
copy of a two-light fifteenth-century window.

The tower appears to be a late fifteenth-century
building much repaired in the seventeenth, the date
1686 being on its west face. The only belfrywindow which appears to be in its original condition
is that on the east, with two cinquefoiled lights and a
quatrefoil over. The west wall has been faced
with ashlar in the seventeenth-century repairs; and
the west window is of the same date, of two uncusped
lights under a square head. The tower arch is of a
type not uncommon in the district, its peculiarity
being that it has in the jambs between the two orders
a round moulding which stops awkwardly at the
capital, and has no corresponding member in the arch.

The chancel has an arched plastered ceiling dated
1764. The only roof of interest is that of the north
aisle which is of the fifteenth century, and has
moulded timbers with carved bosses at the intersections; that on the eastern principal having the device
of an eagle and hind. The stone corbels carrying
this roof are also of interest, one showing a winged
dragon, and another a cat playing a harp.

Plan of Sutton Church

There are a certain number of sixteenth-century
benches in the nave and some seventeenth-century
panelling in the pews of the north aisle. Across the
chancel arch is a fifteenth-century screen with a
modern cornice, said to have come from another
church in the county. In the chancel is a very fine
mediaeval chest with ornamental lock plates, and the
pulpit dated 1628 is a good specimen. The
monuments in the north aisle or Burgoyne chapel
are fine of their kind, especially the large monument at the north-east to John Burgoyne, 1604,
with a life-sized effigy under a canopy flanked by
columns carrying a pediment with heraldry. There
is also a monument against the east wall to Sir John
Burgoyne, 1709, and in the floor is a slab with a brass
cross, of which the base only appears to be ancient,
and an inscription to Thomas Burgoyne, 1516, and
his wife Elizabeth. Further west is the matrix of
another brass, and over the north door is hung a
Union Jack saved from the wreck of the 'Captain'
lost in the Bay of Biscay, 1870.

The font at the west end of the north aisle is
octagonal, with a quatrefoil stem, and approximately
of the same date as the aisle.

There are four bells, the treble and third by C.
& G. Mears, 1856, and the second and tenor by
Christopher Graie, 1655.

The plate consists of a communion cup with cover
paten of 1569, two plated dishes, and modern cruets.
There are also two pewter dishes and a pewter flagon,
the maker being H. Little, of London.

The registers are complete from 1538, the first
book, the parchment copy of 1598, being continued
to 1669. The second runs from 1665 to 1780, the
third is the marriage register, 1755–1812, and the
fourth the register of births and deaths, 1777–1812.

Advowson

The first mention that has been
found of the church of Sutton is in
1311, when the right of presentation
was settled on Alice widow of William le Latimer,
granddaughter and coheir of Christina Ledet. (fn. 48)
It continued to follow
the same descent as Sutton manor, its value in
1381 being 100s., (fn. 49) and
like that manor became
parcel of the duchy of
Lancaster in 1398. It
was the subject of occasional grants, Walter
Walshe received the
right of presentation in
1532 to the church of
Sutton, then worth
£20 10s. 6d. (fn. 50) In 1544
a perpetual grant of the
rectory and advowson
was made to Thomas
Burgoyne, (fn. 51) whose family
retained it until, between
the years 1731 and 1771,
it was purchased from
Sir Roger Burgoyne
by St. John's College,
Oxford, (fn. 52) who have since exercised the right of
presentation. (fn. 53)

Charities

The Charity Estate now consists of
20a. in Marston Moretaine, allotted on
the inclosure in that parish in lieu of
lands in the open fields purchased in 1715, with £100
given by John Burgoyne (£60 for poor and £40 for
the repair of church and bridge), and with £50 left
by Dame Constance Burgoyne, 1711, for a charity
school. The land is let for £20 a year. By an
order of the Charity Commissioners under the Local
Government Act, 1894, the charity was apportioned
as to 2/15ths as an Ecclesiastical charity, of which the
rector and churchwardens were appointed trustees, and
as to 18/15ths as non-ecclesiastical, of which the parish
council appoint four of their body as trustees. The
net income, after payment of tithe and land tax, is
applied as follows: £2 for church repairs, £2 for
repair of bridge, £5 for education, and the balance
is distributed among the poor.

In 1836 Montague Burgoyne by his will, proved
in the P.C.C., left £100 consols, dividends to be
applied as to one-half between three industrious old
men, and as to the other half between three industrious old women recommended by the officiating
minister from among those most constant in their
attendance at divine worship in the parish church.

The same testator also left £100 consols, dividends
to be expended in repairing the organ of the church.
The latter legacy has been augmented by investment
of unapplied income to £228 4s. 2d. consols, which
is held by the official trustees together with the £100
consols left for the poor.

Footnotes

1. Return of the Bd. of Agric. 1905.
The details include land in other
parishes.

17. G. E. C. Complete Peerage; Chan. Inq.
p.m. 1 Edw. III, No. 46. Nicholas le
Latimer was probably an elder son of
Alice le Latimer, but in spite of the terms
of the settlement by which the property,
on failure of heirs of his body, was to
fall to the duchy of Lancaster, Sutton remained some time longer in the Latimer
family.

20. Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Ric. II, No. 35.
He is described as seised of lands and
tenements in Sutton held of the honour of
Huntingdon, and also the advowson of
Sutton church, but his wife at her death in
1384 held the manor, worth £15 3s. 10d.
(Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Ric. II, No. 52).

22. Cal. Rot. Pat. (Rec. Com.), ii, 225.
Elizabeth, in support of her claim, asked
for and received an exemplification of a
fine between John de Braybrooke and
William le Latimer levied in the reign of
Edward I; but 'as great variation was found
between the fine and exemplification by
reason of excess of substantial words in
the latter, and considering the latter issued
from the Chancery imprudently at the
said Elizabeth's crafty suit, the king decrees the same to be insufficient and invalid and hereby revokes it' (Cal. of Pat.
1391–6, p. 33).